Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery

An people wonder why the Air Force has such a problem with sexual assaults. Excellent mug shot.

The Air Force official in charge of its sexual-assault prevention program was arrested for groping, authorities said Monday.

Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, 41, was removed from his position as head of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office pending an investigation, the Air Force said.

The incident happened just after midnight Sunday when a drunken Krusinski allegedly approached the woman in a parking lot in Arlington, Va., and grabbed her breasts and buttocks, according to a police report. Police said the woman fought off her assailant and scratches can be seen on Krusinski’s face in his mug shot. He was charged with sexual battery.

He didn't show up for work today and would not talk to colleagues about the incident, a senior defense official said.

"He has been removed," Lt. Col. Laurel Tingley said of Krusinski, who had been in charge of the sexual-assault unit for about two months. His arrest comes as the U.S. military grapples with sexual assault in its ranks. The Air Force recently came under fire when a commander reversed a guilty verdict in a sexual assault case.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel expressed his "outrage and disgust" to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley Monday night after learning about the allegations against Krusinski. Hagel "emphasized that this matter will be dealt with swiftly and decisively," a Pentagon statement said.

"This is absolutely infuriating," said Greg Jacob, policy director at the Service Women's Action Network. "Clearly the business-as-usual manner in which the military handles sexual assault cases has led to a climate where the very officers in charge of preventing this criminal activity feel that sexual assault is acceptable behavior.

"The military has proven time and again that the current system of prosecuting these cases is broken," he said.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon will release its annual report on sexual assaults in the military, which shows an increase in reported assaults in fiscal year 2012 — up from 3,192 a year before. Furthermore, the number of people who made an anonymous claim that they were sexually assaulted but never reported the attack skyrocketed from 19,000 in FY11 to 26,000 in FY12.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a member of the Armed Services Committee, said the allegations were "extremely disturbing." "It is clear that the status quo regarding sexual assaults in the military is simply unacceptable. Next week I am going to take this issue head on by introducing a set of common sense reforms," she said in a statement. "We have to reform how the military handles sexual assault cases and take on the culture that perpetuates this kind of behavior.”

by Anonymous

reply 27

05/08/2013

Just for starters, they should put a woman in charge of the program.

by Anonymous

reply 1

05/07/2013

His cousin on his mother's side Mark Foley was chairman of the committee in The House of Representatives to prevent internet sexual exploitation of minors. Sounds about right to me.

by Anonymous

reply 2

05/07/2013

Other pics show this guy to be really good looking when he is all cleaned up. I can only guess that he didn't have any problem picking up women when he was sober. Alcohol will really fuck you up and make you do bad things.

He looks like he should be under a suicide watch for a while.

I read that the injuries came from bystanders coming to her aid after she yelled for help.

by Anonymous

reply 3

05/07/2013

[quote]I can only guess that he didn't have any problem picking up women when he was sober. Alcohol will really fuck you up and make you do bad things.

Alcohol destroys a person's judgment, but it won't make him do anything that's totally out of character.

If it were only the alcohol, then everyone who gets drunk would do the same "bad things."

I'm inclined to think that unless the Air Force is able to put a tight lid on this, we'll be hearing more stories about this guy's misdeeds. I doubt this is a one-time thing.

by Anonymous

reply 4

05/07/2013

A fine example of the fox guarding the hen-house.

by Anonymous

reply 5

05/07/2013

I wonder what church he goes to.

by Anonymous

reply 6

05/07/2013

You're probably on target with those thoughts R6.

by Anonymous

reply 7

05/07/2013

I was raped my first weekend out of basic training, and nobody gave a shit. Then another guy tried to rape me a few weeks later. Again, nobody gave a shit.

I'll never figure out why you guys think women have all kinds of advantages.

by Anonymous

reply 8

05/07/2013

Scary what might have happened if there weren't other people in the parking lot.

What's known about Krusinski? Is he married with kids?

by Anonymous

reply 9

05/07/2013

He's gay.

by Anonymous

reply 10

05/07/2013

Hot stud. I certainly wouldn't be complaining.

by Anonymous

reply 11

05/07/2013

Military culture will remain alcohol soaked, and sexual assault prevention training will still place the burden on the victim. I don't know what it will take to change, but currently there are some victims of sexual assault trying to due the Department of Defense.

Most military men would rather die than have their chain of command or even their doctor know it happened to them.

by Anonymous

reply 12

05/07/2013

PBS Newshour had some good coverage of this tonight. There are some congresswomen who are up in arms, and they're really pushing the military to make changes.

One of the things they want is for sex abuse allegations to be removed from the chain of command.

We'll see what happens. I think the asshole predator is going to become the poster boy.

by Anonymous

reply 13

05/07/2013

Chain of command involvement is extremely off-putting, even when your resource isn't a sex offender on their days off.

by Anonymous

reply 14

05/07/2013

R8 - Hugs.

by Anonymous

reply 15

05/07/2013

R8, thank you for your service and I'm really sorry that happened to you. Any suggestions on how to reform the system?

by Anonymous

reply 16

05/08/2013

"Just for starters, they should put a woman in charge of the program."

Sadly, putting a woman in charge might make it even easier for TPTB to ignore the issue.

Seriously, by all accounts the Air Force is overrun with conservative Christians of the worst sort. And among all those values-obsessed religious types, they can't find ONE moral "man of character" who's willing to stop rapes?

by Anonymous

reply 17

05/08/2013

After I posted that a woman should be put in charge, I watched PBS Newshour. The Lieutenant Colonel who overturned the military rape conviction is a woman. It makes sense; women are probably even more susceptible than men to manipulation that uses their careers as a carrot.

I don't know the solution. Removing sex crimes from the chain of command would be a big first step. It might also help if there's some real oversight, not just lip service oversight.

It's pretty obvious Poster Boy thought he could do whatever he chose without repercussions. I can only imagine how much he swept under the table.

I read a few years ago an account of U.S. servicewomen in Iraq who couldn't go to the latrine without being raped.

by Anonymous

reply 18

05/08/2013

You wonder about the bulk of his victims who never tattled.

by Anonymous

reply 19

05/08/2013

The guy's a graduate of the US Air Force Academy. OF COURSE he's a rapist. And so is the Captain who's costing that one woman her 4th star.

Seriously, why does the military have such a long and consistent history of covering up the rapes of both men and women?

Does it secretly value rapists? Does it consider anyone violent enough to rape a colleague a valuable asset on the field of battle? Or does it blame the victims, deciding that if they can't fight off an attacker they aren't good soldiers?

Seriously, there's more going on here than a desire to avoid bad publicity.

by Anonymous

reply 22

05/08/2013

What are the statistics on male-male rape in the military?

by Anonymous

reply 23

05/08/2013

R8 (also sending you support)

by Anonymous

reply 24

05/08/2013

WTF?

The man must be dumber than shit. Way to wreck your life, dumbass!

I hope you have eternal shame.

by Anonymous

reply 25

05/08/2013

I'm not sure he was dumb, R25. I think he has been doing this all along, and I think he was put in his position to make sure rapes and other sex crimes in the Air Force were not prosecuted.

As the PBS report said, he was specifically chosen for his job.

by Anonymous

reply 26

05/08/2013

After women being banned from serving in the military for so long, they should just switch it up and make it an all-female military. Reinstate the draft, draft only women, and no more of these problems.

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